Happy New Year with Essie - Starry Starry Night (Retro Revival Collection 2016)

Happy New Year to all of you nail enthusiasts!!

For New Years Eve I wore Essie Starry Starry Night!
How could I not really: it is blue, there is glitter, it's an old polish that is re-introduced (so it is new)....very symbolic and all, plus it was the perfect colour to go with my outfit ;-)
This is two layers of starry happiness, two gluelike layers that is. The formula was not topnotch: I ended up thinning it with at least 5 drops in the tiny mini bottle. But the colour is wonderful and the glitters swimming in the navy blue jelly are to die for! I was very fortunate with my buy: I usually buy my Essie polishes on Ebay and the day after I bought my mini "cube" (that is no cube anymore) they more than doubled it in price. I paid €11,00 and now you have to pay €23,00...ridiculous, not to mention the prices you (still) have to pay for a normal size bottle!

Essie - Starry Starry Night

OPI Give Me Space (Holiday Starlight Collection 2015)

Well, it has been a while......
Life got the better of me: we adopted a puppy named Echo (a Portuguese Podengo mix found in a trashcan), I started a serious study (Law), the summer holidays, helping the kids with school etc. etc.

Echo, 12 weeks

So I am now trying to find a way to fit blogging into this picture: it needs to be quick and easy, so the next few weeks I am going to figure out how to make this happen! But it's going to be less pictures, less text and just once a week on monday.

Here we go!

OPI Give Me Space

OPI Give Me Space, from the Starlight Holiday Collection 2015.
This is one coat over one coat of Essie After School Boy Blazer: I wanted it to be less jelly blue and more midnight sky.
And LOOK: Give Me Space is a scattered holo >ieks< !!!!!
It is a sister of Zoya Dream, but that one is more blue and the holo is more fleck-like (read: bigger).

OPI - Today I Accomplished Zero (Coca Cola Collection summer 2014)

Opi's Today I Accomplished Zero is inspired by.....Coca Cola Zero....and I really do hate the taste of that one. It's like drinking liquid plastic or something >brrrrr< and the after taste is the worst >shivers<

And the polish? I wasn't too sure looking at the bottle, it looked murky and unattractive to my eye.
The first coat on the nail didn't change that perspective one little bit: it was streaky and transparent. But coat number two did the trick: there was depth and there was sparkle and glowing ambers in the dark. I love it and it is very wearable!

OPI - Today I Accompliced Zero

I won't start drinking Coke Zero, but I do love this colour and I am definitely going to wear this one very often this fall!
Naturally it reminds us of the Mariah Carey one Stay The Night (one of the first Liquid Sand polishes), but I think the reddish-pink glitter is a bit more red in TIAZ and there is more size variation in those glitters as well

left: Today I accomplished Zero & right: Stay The Night

BB Couture for Nails - Eve (Infamous Lovers Collection 2010)

Infamous lovers...doesn't that sound great?!
And of all these infamous lovers I choose Eve and the colour and name combination is perfection.
Eve is a murky, mossy, swampy green-brown jelly with flashy green micro glitters floating around and a vague brown red duochrome quality. It is a complicated shade (fitting for Eve) that is hard to capture in words and in pictures, but one that is very, very fun to wear!
It is an older polish (2010) but I think if you channel the Sherlock Holmes in you, it might still be possible to find this polish on the web...

BB Couture for Nails - Eve

The first coat was a bit streaky but the second one made all the difference and gave me these beautiful swamp nails!
This would be a very nice Halloween polish as well, come to think of it....

China Glaze - Heat Index (Summer 2013 Sunsational Collection)

There are those days that you are in need of a good juicy neon pink....today was one of those!
I reached for China Glaze Heat Index, of last years neon summer collection: a perfect neon pink that is a juicy jelly. The jelly makes it succulant and shiny and it makes the neon a bit less harsh. This was three coats and I had still vnl and it is not build-able to opacity I'm afraid BUT the colour was very intense.

China Glaze - Heat Index

If and when you are allergic to jellies and/or vnl, Heat Index is not for you. If you like squishy colour wash on your nails: try Heat Index, you'll love it!
A point to note is that these Sunsational jellies don't last long on the nails...the ones that I wore were heavily chipped after one day or so....perhaps I'm doing something wrong......I don't know?!

Hare Polish - Peepshow Magique (The Coin Operation Collection, fall 2013)

Ahhhh, PINK again!
I have been eyeing this polish for a while and everytime I wanted to purchase it....it was sold out.
But I managed the get my hands on it at the end and here it is: Peepshow Magique.
It's a pale pink jelly with rounded gold and opalescent flakes mixed in. The formula is a bit syrupy but very manageble: this is 3 coats.
I am very much loving the indie polishes lately, I love the out of the box glitter mixes, some of them do great shimmers and holo's as well....it's all a bit more out there or something. Where as the big mainstream brands play it safe most of the time, with hidden shimmers, faint holo's and bland colours, the indie world is a big party of colours, holo's, shimmers, glitters, glow in the dark etc. etc. Some are hit and miss but there are loads of very interesting concoctions: I like!

Hare Polish - Peepshow Magique

 Very wearable, very cute and even work appropriate! Love it :-)

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Fire Queen (2013, Fan Collection 2.0)

And here she is, the second polish I bought at Rescue Beauty Lounge: Fire Queen!
Like it is described at RBL:

“My color inspiration comes from Depression Era glass from the 1930s and 1940s—specifically, the pale jade color of the Fire-King line made by the Anchor Hocking Glass Company commonly referred to as “jadeite.” In a sea of imposters, no one has been able to capture the magic of the genuine Fire-King and thus it has become highly coveted since the 1960′s: a small decadence of lean times turned luxury. When you hold a piece of Fire-King up to the light it glows with history. This hue has a build-able jade jelly and the end result looks like milk glass veneers on your fingertips. Both edgy and full of vintage charm, this polish is the perfect fit for any 'Fire-Queen.’” Jaime’s desire.(RBL)

Well that just about explaines it all! Fire Queen is a lovely jelly that builds up in three/four coats and gives this lovely squishy, milky and shiny result. The formula is way better then the NailsAndNoms one. >thank heavens< It is self leveling and has a medium to long drying time in some lights it has a warm mint hue and in other light it is more of a cool colour (perhaps due to it's translucency?).

Rescue Beauty Lounge - Fire Queen

My camera makes it way too yellow here....but the pic shows that in some lights FQ does look more yellow.

This was four coats and I wore it for four days without chipping or any major tip wear.
Sooooo; RBL has redeemed itself somewhat, I am still not in love with the brand but I can appreciate the qualities of this very nice and fresh polish indeed!

Pretty & Polished - Blood Clot or my take on Halloween!

Here in The Netherlands, Halloween is not very big business...some children will go and try to "scare" some shop holders in the street, but it is nothing big.
I had the sudden urge to wear something bloody on my finger tips so I reached to a friend from last year: Pretty & Polished Blood Clot. I stalked it for weeks because it was sold out every time...and when I finaly purchased it..Halloween was over!
I love this polish, it sounds gruesome "Bloot Clot" but it looks quite charming I would say!
It is a syrupy cherry red (or blood red if you prefer) with two sizes of shiny hex glitters. There is some fishing acquired for the big hexes and with that you tend to add a blob of syrup on the nail as well. This gives it that extra clotted appearence.

This was three layers and some extra blobs:

Pretty&Polished - Blood Clot

I tried my hardest to get it photographed right...it just wouldn't. The polish is so shiny that it messed with the focus of the camera. The colour of the third and the fifth shot is the closest to the truth, it has just a hint more brown in it (more blood, less cherry). Do NOT look at my cuticles they are horrid...and it isn't even winter yet!

Happy Halloween!!!

OPI - Underneath The Mistletoe, Holiday 2013 Mariah Carey Collection

Since it is nearly Christmas (.....) I'll be showing you Underneath The Mistletoe from the OPI Holiday Collection featuring >again< Mariah Carey.
Why Mariah again, I wonder? She's not the only celeb with nails....and I do not find her that interesting to be excited about two collections with her face on the displays....>sorry<
And thus, the Holiday Collection is not very exciting nor spectacular in my eyes. There are loads of reds of which I find Underneath The Mistletoe the most interesting.
It is a cranberry jam coloured jelly with silver micro glitter, which most of the time colours red and magenta due to the base colour.

The formula is good yet a bit on the gluey side (but very workable), this was two coats:

OPI - Underneath The Mistletoe

My camera had a "slight" difficulty to focus on this baby......so the pics are not too clear....
It's a very Holiday season appropriate polish, sparkley but not in your face! And happy to know it does not stain when being removed.